


hey there, space cowboy

by WhirlyBird70



Category: One Piece
Genre: (as in the level they do in op but it is mentioned several times so good to tag), Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Western, Cowboy AU, Drinking, Fighting, Found Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Space cowboy AU, because the romance doesnt even feature yet in all three of the drabbles i wrote, thats everyone in chap 1 at least!!, zolu is tagged both romantic and platonic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 21:48:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25213432
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhirlyBird70/pseuds/WhirlyBird70
Summary: There's a story to be found on an unnamed desert planet, without water and with three suns burning the sky red. There's a story to be found between drinks and gunfights, and the way friends call out to each other when there's nothing but sand in sight.There's a story to be found with the Straw Hats, and red blood spilled across desert sands.-Or: Zolu Space Cowboy AU
Relationships: Monkey D. Luffy & Mugiwara Kaizoku | Strawhat Pirates, Monkey D. Luffy & Roronoa Zoro, Monkey D. Luffy/Roronoa Zoro
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

In another life, Zoro thinks they would have belonged on the sea. Endless depths beneath their feet, sun glinting off the waves, air full of sea spray and salt and adventure – the life of a pirate, an outlaw on the seas.

( _Free_.)

Who knows, perhaps they could still have that life someday.

But for now, Zoro makes his home in the endless stretch of the desert, where three suns shine dimmer than Luffy’s smile but hotter than a burning fire, and the horizon never seems to end. Where sand is as rolling as ocean waves, where the path he travels gets lost between shifting dunes, and where dirty cliffsides provide meager shade. Where, where, where Zoro is never anywhere but nowhere all the time.

(And still, people say he gets lost. How, when there isn’t anything on this blasted hell planet?)

The desert (the entirety) of this unnamed planet is a lawless land, one with few rules and fewer morals. People look at you and see your weapons before your face, assessing you before a fight can break out.

(Everyone has a gun, but it’s the people with shitty ones you have to look out for. Those people survive by other means (fists encased in black, swords slicing red blood across golden sand, kicks cracking mountains and slingshots flashing faster than a bullet) – and they are always so much more _dangerous_ than those who import state of the art weapons from the only fucking port on the entire planet.)

(Those people – the people Zoro’s part of, the people that Zoro can defeat in moment if he tried because he’s he has to live – are survivors, victors, _alive_.)

Miles stretch between towns, cliffsides more common than a motel to lay your head, but Zoro’s used to it now. He never stays in town for long, the only thing it being good for is booze and bloody knuckles. He enjoys it when he can but –

The horizon holds more gleaming treasures than a seedy saloon in the middle of nowhere.

“Zoro.”

The name is said with the easygoing conviction of someone who knows he’ll listen. And really, the speaker is the only one Zoro would ever listen to.

(Well. There’s a bit of nuance to that, because Nami knows when the dust is kicking up into a devil, and Robin knows negotiations, and Usopp knows poison and Chopper knows medicine but - )

“Luffy.”

(He’s the only person that Zoro would listen to without question, without condition, without doubt, without the glimmering thought of _mutiny_.)

Luffy, smiling under a golden hat ( _crown_ ) of straw, brightens at Zoro’s own tone, the way Zoro is now distracted from the cliffside he is hanging his feet off of. Luffy passes Zoro a bottle of whiskey, his own bottle dangling between two scarred fingers. “Nami says we should reach Devil’s Peak by daybreak.”

“Yeah? Think there will be a fight?”

_Think there will be an adventure?_

“It’s us.”

_Of course._

“Nice.” Luffy takes a swig out of his own bottle, settling down beside Zoro so they can stare out at the setting sun together.

They’ve been heading towards Devil’s Peak for a while now, drawn by the promise of the best liquor this side of the Divide and a treasure hidden in the caverns of the cliffside town.

 _An adventure,_ Luffy had said, learning about it from a bloody bandit lying at his feet. _A profit,_ Nami had said delighted, and mapped out a path immediately.

Zoro doesn’t think he’ll mind if there’s no adventure or treasure or even booze to be found there.

(Well, maybe not the last one.)

The ride there has been eventful enough – it was the usual standard of eventful at least. Merry, their crystal powered wagon, outfitted to scale narrow cliffs, had half broken down before Usopp could fix her up, there had been no less than six bandit attacks, they had gotten off track for three days, booze had run out before they stumbled upon a suspicious treasure trove of it, and Luffy had befriended a giant lizard (who was now, under the new name of ‘Beans’ helping pull Merry as her jets sputtered and flickered to keep moving.)

The journey is all he really has now – what’s the point of getting from A to B, if A and B are just shitholes and busted lips and sorry people?

So, he enjoys it.

Though – privately, to hold up his façade, even as he tips his own sun worn hat closer to his face – he would like a bed to sleep in.

(This unnamed planet has three suns with burning rays. It’s dangerous to travel in the day during scorching season (which is most of the year, as the planet travels between all three suns), so naps are made in cramped tents and quarters during the day. Night is when they travel during the scorching season, when this planet turns away from the light for just a moment, meager hours to precious to waste on dawdling so the pace is deadly. But… Zoro misses the rising sun above his head sometimes – misses being able to sleep whenever and not just when the chance of dying is close to zero. But – it’s the desert.

A merciless, unforgiving place.

What can he do, but survive it? Enjoy it?)

Beside him, Luffy starts humming, some old campfire song that Zoro distantly remembers from last night.

Its peaceful, this quiet moment. The way the setting sun frames Luffy’s face and the brim of his hat casts shadows in all the right places. The chill that slowly settles over their skin like whispers, the breeze that ruffles the bandanas around both of their necks.

The bottles of whiskey are set aside for a moment as both of them lean in closer to each other. Shoulders brush and Luffy kicks Zoro’s ankles twice before Zoro mutters an angry _quit it!_ only to be met with a _Shishishi!_ They settle, the sounds of the camp, a party, really, fading in the background, leaving only them and the setting sun.

Luffy’s fingers brush Zoro’s, and he is quick to snatch his hand in a gentle hold.

Luffy’s hands are calloused as he traces them over Zoro’s. They aren’t like Zoro’s, which are hardened from swords made of desert steel and years of practice, but rather the kind one gets from living in the desert and the wilderness for years – the kind one gets when a strong grip is all that’s between you and falling off a cliff, between you and losing a fight, between you and your freedom.

Luffy snickers, a soft thing, as Zoro switches the hold so he can trace over them instead. His head lands against Zoro’s shoulder, straw hat bumping off, and letting black hairs tickle Zoro’s skin.

Zoro doesn’t mind.

(The desert is an unforgiving place, a nameless place where nothing that has meaning really survives, and Zoro does not know how long this easy going pace will last. They have six in their motley crew, their gang, right now, and every destination is more dangerous than the last as they make their way across the desert.

Eventually, one of them is going to fall.

(And the sorry bastards of this hideous planet will cry _A Straw Hat is dead!_ with tears in their eyes as they read the scrap of paper they call news with one of his friends’ bodies on the cover They will _cry_ and no one will know if it is joyful or terrified.

It’ll probably be both.)

But that is not now – now is peaceful moments under the setting sun, liquor warming his lips and a hand in his. Now is the gleaming gold of a hat and a familiar sloping scar, now is the warmth of a body pressed against his and the chatter of dear friends – _family_ – in the background.

Now is not forever, but it is all that matters.

So no, Zoro does not mind. He doesn’t mind at all.)


	2. Chapter 2

Zoro met Luffy on the hottest day of the year, in a town by the only sea this sorry planet had ever known.

It was an accident he ended up there on the dredges of the Easblu System, really, but fate is funny like that.

(Always, so _stupidly_ funny.)

Zoro doesn’t question it for the most part - It was one transport to the bustling city of Logue, then a bar fight or two, before he blacked out. The next thing he knew he was sent crashing to this desert planet, where no one got out unless they were dead.

(Criminals were the only population of this planet, or at least it they were supposed to be. The systems been going on for generations now however, ‘good’ planets shoving the people they don’t like to see to some far-off place, so Zoro isn’t surprised when the cry of a baby reverberates throughout a town or a child, with sand rubbed cheeks, watches his sword arc through the air.

No. He isn’t surprised at all.

He can’t really say he cares but – he can’t say he _doesn’t_ either. _That’s life_ , he can only grimly think.

 _Merciless_ , just like the desert.)

He crashed at the only spaceport, his transport ship getting into a mess mid descent. Zoro would guess He was the only one lucky to survive the crash, if he believed in things like luck for himself.

At the time, Zoro had no fucking clue what planet he had fallen on. Only that some blonde punk with a shitty haircut and a patched-up suit that was supposed to be fancy was kicking him in the face.

He survived – he being the blonde bastard – only because Zoro had some semblance of pride and love for his swords.

And the blonde guy’s guards had already snatched them up.

( _Wado Ichimonji_ , made of the finest metal his village could temper, was held in the bastard’s grasp. Her hilt, inlayed not with lights like the usual fashion but gold and thread – the mark of a true swordsman – flashed in the blistering sun as the man picked at it. Rage had coursed through Zoro then, unmistakable _rage_ but - 

_Oh? You’re new here, aren’t you? Another sorry bastard to join this **shithole**. Well – let’s cut to the chase shall we? You’re going to work for me and my Daddy’s business, and then you can have your swords._

Zoro had lunged at the sniveling voice, because he didn’t bow to _anyone._

But –

_Ahah! If you do that, I’ll just have to kill this little lady right here, won’t I?_

Rika had looked so terrified, standing there between the guards, gun (gleaming silver, with neon inlays and laser ability) pressed to her forehead.

Zoro could have saved her then, if he had his swords.

(If he was _stronger._ )

(If he was the _greatest_.)

Instead, a bargain was struck.

(Fifteen days for Rika’s life, ten for the swords, five for freedom.

It was a scam, but with Rika’s eyes wide as his planet’s moons, Zoro didn’t care.))

Zoro did not know then, how hot this planet got, how the shade from the tower and the drops of water Rika gave him would be the only reasons he was alive by the tenth day. He did not know then, that his will (so small, so insignificant then) was no match for the force of three suns.

He was dying, a martyr upon a wooden cross, bleeding out onto already red sand.

(What would he be, at the end of this? Free? Or bleached bones under the three suns of nowhere?

He could not kid himself into thinking the pile of white in the corner were stones.)

Three suns would kill him, surely, if he allowed it, but he was determined to die with a sword in his hand. He had promised Kuina that much after all.

Helmeppo mocked him, sometimes, but on this day, this solstice, he did not come out.

The hottest day of the year, when all three suns worked in equal force, destroying whatever in their sights.

Zoro was not prepared for a fourth sun to enter the fray.

But there he was – he, a stranger, because Zoro did not know the name of his king till later – standing there in the middle of a dusty courtyard in a burning town.

Zoro did not know what to make of him at first. His hair was black and his eyes were wide, his skin brown and sun freckled, mouth pressed in a line. A scar sloped under his eye, a crescent mark that seemed to say _fight me_ , and a straw cowboy hat resting gently on his head.

His feet were nearly covered in the sand, sand Zoro _knew_ had to be burning, but here the boy (man?) was, standing in dusty chaps and a loose, vibrant shirt. His vest was tattered, but the rest of him seemed almost pristine. As if the destruction of the desert could not touch him in any way that mattered.

Zoro’s throat was too parched to make a sound, his face to caked in dusty sand to move, but the stranger cocked his head anyway.

“How long have you been here?”

Zoro didn’t answer.

(He had heard that heat and sand could cause mirages. Surely that’s what this was – this beautiful, otherworldly stranger was just that – a stranger of his mind not reality.

It wasn’t real – it _couldn’t_ be real.)

“Thirteen days? Damn. I would have given up before then. Aren’t you hungry?”

Zoro didn’t answer.

(It couldn’t be real. How would this man know how many days he has spent dying anyway?)

“You seem strong though. Don’t you know what day this is? The solstice. Anybody whose anybody is staying inside – anybody sane at least.”

Zoro raised an eyebrow at the amused voice of the stranger, who only _laughed_ in response.

“Shishishi!”

It was the best thing Zoro had ever heard, not that he would ever tell this stranger that.

“Yeah, I’m used to it though – really! But hey!” The strangers voice turn thoughtful, head cocking to the side once more. Zoro thought his hat would fall off, but it stayed on, straw and red ribbon solidly on this stranger’s head. “You should join my crew. If you can last 15 days now, you can do anything.”

Zoro had head of stories about desert devils before. Mirages with real form and breath and tone, who tricked you into anything. It was fake, of course but…

“I’ll go get your swords, kay?”

The stranger was gone in a blink, and Zoro wondered if that was what a desert devil was like.

(Handsome and devilish and kind, all at once, with trickery rolling off the tongue like sweet honey, honesty hiding the possessive, selfish look in wide eyes, and _danger_ dripping from every pore.

The desert changes you, just like the sea.

Zoro wonders, often, how it changed this devil.)

Gunshots ring out, lasers shooting into the air in small flashes. Something is burning, the smoke clogging the air and providing brief respite from the power of three suns.

Then – then – then

The stranger is in front of him again, bearing gifts equivalent to gold and silver thrones.

_His Swords – Wado Ichimonji!_

Zoro would have thought he was an angel, if not for the blood dripping from the stranger’s knuckles and the smear on his face, if not for the fact that Zoro had forgotten the higher powers long ago and knew only of blood and grit and the power that is humanity.

“My names Monkey D. Luffy,” The stranger says, but he’s no longer a stranger isn’t he? “And I’m going to be _King._ ”

The stranger, the future king (of what? Zoro finds he does not care), hands Zoro Wado, unperturbed at the way Zoro does not reject a single sword. Zoro is free as the guards rush out of the smoking saloon, and the stranger, Luffy, before him, is grinning.

“Roronoa Zoro.” Zoro says, because he doesn’t think he’s said it before.

“I know.” Luffy says, tilting his head to block the glare of the sun. “Who are you?”

_Who will you be?_

“The Greatest.”

Zoro doesn’t say swordsman after, even though that’s what he means. He doesn’t say that is name will echo to the heavens that don’t exist, echo across all the universe, every nation and planet and star, until Kuina hears it, until everyone hears it.

His King knows that already. (Or he will, at any rate.) Now, he needs to know what Zoro will be for _him,_ this man who saved him under three burning suns.

(Luffy doesn’t say what is dream is. But what other dream could he have, but freedom?)

Luffy nods and turns on his heel, flicking blood from his knuckles into the sand.

(Zoro wonders if it sizzles.)

“Let’s go.” It’s not an order, but Zoro will follow it anyway.

“Aye Captain.”

(And if they earn their first wanted posters on the way out, making a name for themselves on a solstice day where only idiots burned, if they killed a man with an axe and set a boy on his dreams well – no one really talks about beginnings now. That’ll get lost in the desert mirages and burning suns.

They will simply rise from dust and hunger, and become something more in the merciless desert.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not proofread, im tired, but HAPPY ONE PIECE DAY!!!!! had to put out something lmao
> 
> anyway, this chapter will probably get rewritten at some point but for now,, uh,, yeah
> 
> im very tired sorry
> 
> hope you enjoyed this and thanks for reading!! if you see a typo please point it out!! thank you!!
> 
> <3
> 
> \- whirly 
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)

**Author's Note:**

> yeah i started two separate long drabbles stories in like three days what about it
> 
> anyway!! ive been sitting on this for awhile and i have the first three sections done, but this was the only one i was happy with so far. they were supposed to be one giant section but i think i like a drabble series better. This is, to my tumblr followers, part of what the three suns thing from a while back was about!!
> 
> so. the other sections may be up. they may not be!! but take this because i have space cowboy zolu stuck on my head in repeat and my head is stuck on the desert aesthetic tbh
> 
> anyway (wow i say that a lot in the notes) enjoy!!!! thank you for reading <333! 
> 
> \- whirly
> 
> [My Tumblr!](https://whirlybirdwhat.tumblr.com)


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